


Youthful Shenanigans

by timaeusGodhead



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Chaotic Disasters, F/M, M/M, Magic debates for hours, Young Marvel AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-02-09 06:02:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18632272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timaeusGodhead/pseuds/timaeusGodhead
Summary: A bunch of connected oneshots involving the youth marvel au. There is no canon romantic relationship in the grand plot so everything is pretty much canon/not canon.





	1. Tony Stark x Pepper Potts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ‘Pepper, It doesn’t matter how many universes there are. There will always be a version of me standing by your side.’

Tony Stark was a genius, a fact that everyone was aware of and the fact that he was also just reaching his twenties left bigger companies in shame and in his imposingly big shadow. But it didn’t make him more important than anyone else especially significant enough to give the enemy exactly what he wanted. Thanos achieved victory, that much was certain. It was a hard pill to shallow.

Failure never sat well with him, failing on such a grand level was new to him. Tony had seen allies turn to dust before his very eyes in a very unnecessarily dramatic way but it was also unstoppable. The Guardians of the Galaxy who Tony had just met a few hours ago and they seemed like a joke but so did The Avengers to outsiders so he wouldn’t quite judge the fallen. 

Stephen Strange, the sorcerer, the so called Master of Mystic Arts when it was only science. Magic didn’t exist but than again neither did Stephen now. ‘It was a necessary sacrifice’ he had said but was it? Right now half the population of everything that has ever existed has died and Doctor Strange talks about necessary sacrifice? Tony was but one man and despite his many accomplishments that were more impressive than most he did not see why he was the one that must survive.

Peter Parker was a scientist, an engineer with genius level intellect. He was a research assistant and he was also the hero Spider-Man and admittedly he was a better man than Tony would ever be. 

Far away from Earth and further from any communication than would grant him knowledge on who still lived he didn’t let himself linger on the fates of other individuals that managed to stick around to become part of his inner circle. Tony was especially trying to avoid thinking of Pepper Potts who saw his worst and his best sides and still managed to stick around. The amount of stressful near death experiences was going to give him grey hair before it was meant to happen naturally.

“Are you okay?” He addressed his only companion on a planet left in ruins. His question was more aimed at acquiring if she was physically okay rather than mentally because even now he was in the process of becoming undone and being completely fine. “I have a lot to do even more to fix.”

“I need to avenge my sister.” His companion replied, she was blunt and if Tony were to guess who she was based on appearances alone, a warrior that had gone through a little too much trauma, too much pain for someone as young as she was like himself. “My only goal is to destroy Thanos.”

“That’s part of my list actually.” Tony wasn’t going to let Thanos just walk free for all he did there was no redemption for a man that killed over half a population of everything that existed, “I might have a way of finding him too.”

She turns to face him now, eyes meeting his, “it would seem like I’ll be going with you for the tome being. I am Nebula.”

“Tony Stark.” She knew where a ship was so he follows her, it was the Guardians ship and it smelt like old old potato chips and a lot of other smells he couldn’t pin point.

They spoke sometimes, mostly of the Avengers without thinking of how many currently remained standing on Earth. Regardless he was an avenger and as the name implied he would avenge them. Beside from the conversations and the rambling to himself deep inside his mind. He was fixing the Iron Man suit.

“What was their name?”

Tony turned to look at Nebula. He hadn’t noticed her there but from the small time they had shared the same close tiny ship he did gather certain information about his alien friend from observation she didn’t like talking about herself beyond the hatred of Thanos. “I was trained to read movement and expression to effectively carry out my task, I can tell. What was their name?” She pressed him on this but he didn’t really mind. Maybe he was looking for an excuse to talk about this subject.

So Tony wasn’t the only one looking closely, “Pepper. Her name was Pepper. We had a disagreement before this happened.”

“Something to fix?”

“It’s not as simple as defeating Thanos but yes.” Tony replied. There was a chance that Pepper turned to dust herself and that wasn’t something he was prepared for. But this was a relationship, he couldn’t fix it in a way that he would with his Iron Man suit but he did need to speak to her.

His thoughts turned to Stephen Strange, it seemed like before the battle took place the wizard looked into the future and Tony was going to entertain this thought for a moment, if that was that case would the existence of different universes actually be true and not wild theories like Tony had originally thought ? Magic and other universes? He would need to think of these subjects when he was in a more stable location. 

That same cold bitter feeling occurred the more that Tony continued to pursue this line of thought. Even if magic existed and he could run to a different universe and a different Pepper Potts. It wouldn’t be the same and it sickened him on a deep moral level to just run away from everything just because maybe a different universe existed and it was better there.

‘Pepper, It doesn’t matter how many universes there are. There will always be a version of me standing by your side.’ 

Regardless of if the existence of the other universes was true or not, he needed to be here. Tony was going to fix everything.


	2. Tony Stark x Stephen Strange

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes two very intelligent individuals have debates about magic.

Stephen Strange had aspirations of being a surgeon once. He was the most intelligent student in the entire class and it had been known among everyone that it was him that was the one going to be the most successful. But never in his wildest dreams did he imagine he would be where he is today. As the guardian of the Time Stone, Stephen could glance through the time stream. Although there was nothing consistent, each event had multiple paths that could be taken and thus having multiple events stemming from it. Destiny wasn’t as set in stone as some would like and there was a rule to interfere as little as possible.

Tony Stark kept his expression levelled as Stephen explained this. He knew what the genius was actually thinking beneath the surface. Stephen tried to think of how to explain this in a more scientific way. If the severeness of messing with time wasn’t drilled into Tony's head from his kinder explanations than perhaps he would 'firmly scold' him for even thinking about using it for such a little matter, than perhaps Stephen would turn time and start the conversation of magic and the Time Stone in a more impressive way.

“So you think that just by showing me a incredibly shiny rock, I’ll suddenly believe in the possibility of magic?” Tony asked finally voicing the small voice that was clearly occupying his head. Stephen’s tongue seemed to weight heavy all of a sudden so the wizard simply nodded. Tony hummed in that weird know it all way that the genius specialised in, “and while I admit that your fancy shield made of light is impressive. It can simply be explained as scientific and not ‘magic’ if I tried hard enough.”

 

Stark’s eyes still linger over the amulet in an obvious show of interest. Stephen could understand that even from an observers point of view, the gem radiated power, “There’s plenty of things that can’t be labeled as scientific and waved away. One of your Avengers is literally a god from space.”

 

“Firstly thank you for acknowledging that I am in fact leader of the Avengers, some people seem to miss that important detail.” the young man said sarcastically. There was always a tiny power struggle in the Avengers team but this wasn’t about that and Stephen doubts that subject would ever reach the light of day, “secondly that can also be explained with, let me hear you say it this time -“ Tony makes a grand gesture with his hand before half cupping it over his ear in a dramatic ‘I’m listening’ gesture.

“Science.” Stephen said plainly, it wasn’t true of course and he wonders if his heart could have chosen better than to have affections for someone like this. “Has anyone ever told you how stubborn and annoying you can be?”

His companion seemed to pretend to think it over, “I think there’s been a few people but not too many. People in fact think I’m absolutely charming and insanely good-looking.”

“I think that’s absolute bullshit.” Stephen replied making sure his eye roll was as dramatic as possible as to ensure a certain companion had seen it. “There is no way that only a few people have told you that you are stubborn and annoying.”

“Did you use your sorcery to find that one out?” Tony asked, hardly sincere with his question as he ate another grape from the baggy he had taken out of his pocket.

“No. I just know you and how you like pressing people’s buttons to find out how they tick.” Stephen said as he shakes his head once again when he's offered a grape. “Why is it that you find magic so strange?”

His question is put on the back burner for a moment as Tony eats another piece of his purple round fruit. Personally he preferred green grapes but that wasn’t the issue right now and Stephen wasn’t going to semi-argue with Tony on another topic when arguing about the existence of magic. Arguing might have been a bit of a strong word for it since neither of them even raised their voices.

“Well-“ It seemed like Tony decided he had left him in dramatic silence long enough and decided to answer the question, “magic is always going to have an unknown factor if it existed and this isn’t a confirmation from me, but that opens the door to more chaotic material that could exist as well.” 

Tony leans in from his side of the couch, he had been semi laying across it while Stephen had chosen to sit the more graceful and normal way, but it also made it easy for Tony to bring his mouth to his ear, “or maybe I just like fucking with you. You react in a similar way someone people do when I say that Earth is flat.”

 

“Of course you’d find it amusing.” Stephen wasn’t angry in fact it was a relief to see Tony act somewhere close to his age. His boyfriend was barely the age of an adult and yet the public and his company demanded that he act like someone three times his age, “Flat Earthers think your one of them and they end up ecstatic, only for you to turn around and go lol tricked you. It’s frankly embarrassing to watch.”

He moved back to where he was sitting, “okay hold on did you just say lol?” 

“Is that all you just took from what I just said?”

“No. But you aren’t one to ‘text talk’ and so I find that the important part of the conversation.” Tony didn’t bother to hide his amusement at Stephen’s use of text talk. “It means laughing out loud by the way, I didn’t know if you knew or not old man.”

 

“I know what it means.” Stephen resorted as he avoids looking at the lounging Stark as he stares at the painting on the other side of the room, “This conversation has derailed enough however, so let’s go back to the original topic and not chat about my use of lol for the next hour or two.”

 

“The existence of magic or” Tony lefts his hand up as he points at the amulet Stephen wore, “perhaps you’d like to talk about your fancy jewellery?”

“This isn’t just a fancy piece of jewellery.”

“I know. You told me already, in an impressive amount of detail.” Tony replied a little on the side of smartassery like usual, “It’s the Time Stone, it’s used to reverse or see through time.”

“That’s simplifying it but correct.” 

 

“I’ll be back, I need another drink but we'll talk about this for another hour.”

Tony left Stephen to his thoughts. Doctor Strange did appreciate that his boyfriend was sparing his free time like this to debate with him on this topic, but now he had been curious about something in particular. So he was glad when his partner left the room as this was apparently not the room with the best alcohol. The Eye of Agamotto opens at his command, maybe he was a little to invested in the fate of his partner and that sense of bias would never do him any good. 

Anthony Edward Stark had multiple different futures like every other individual with too many endings to responsibly go through but it wasn’t impossible as he shifts through the louder and brighter paths. A cold edge digs into his heart from multiple directions, it seemed that Tony sacrificed far too much, far too many times and there was nothing he could do despite his deep feelings for the man. Telling someone like Iron-Man what could happen in his future wasn’t the same as telling someone that a can of bright red paint would ruin their favourite five hundred-dollar jacket and you probably shouldn’t wear it today. It could lead to the destruction of humanity itself. There was probably some type of wisdom in ‘don’t dare heroes’ that he had ignored for months and would continue to ignore but this was probably going to give him early grey hair.

 

“You okay over there?” Tony asked the second Stephen opened his eyes. It would seem like the genius had returned before he did in a sense, “you seemed to be in some deep meditation when I returned.”

 

Stephen shallowed hard, it was tempting to say something about what he saw but he decided that is would be too risky and would just leave the burden entirely on his own shoulders, “perhaps you shouldn’t wear that favourite jacket of yours tomorrow. It might get messy.”

 

“Right so I’m assuming you were doing some timey wimey stuff while I was gone.” Tony sipped his wine as he threw Stephen a look far too cheeky, “what’s going to happen?”

 

“I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise.” Stephen teased it was a lie to chase away his guilt, it wasn’t a predetermined destiny, anything can happen between now and then and that lifted his spirit in some type of way, “I’d hate for people to see something so hilarious.”

There was a shift in Tony’s expression, like someone had pulled a light switch. In a millisecond the wealthy genius had gone from extremely amused to a type of serious he reserved for the most dire of situations. Not that Tony ever took anything serious but there were levels to it and this was the highest, “okay spill, there’s something bugging you.”

“How do you figure?”

“For one you aren’t as engaged with our playful banter, as much as I like hearing the sound of me speak it feels very one-sided.” Tony slides down his sunglasses, which was not a good sign because Tony’s sunglasses weren’t just any regular pair. You couldn’t go down to any store and buy them due to them being a Stark original, it was also hooked to his artificial intelligence “do you want to know the meaning of the word conversation?”

 

“Tony-“

“According to my helpful friend Google it means a talk, especially an informal one, between two or more people, in which news and ideas are exchanged.”

“Yes I kn-“

“How about the definition of the word banter?”

“Tony-“

 

“An exchange in remarks in a good-humoured teasing way.” Tony slides his sunglasses back up as they return the dark softness of his hair. “While I could possibly banter with myself it doesn’t have the same appeal.”

 

“Tony!” For the first time in the entire conversation Stephen had raised his voice, it was never really him that was prone to anger and he was probably as surprised as his companion looked. “I’m sorry for raising my voice but you simply weren’t listening.” 

“No it’s fine.” Tony replied with a shrug, Stark grasped the sorcerer’s hand between both of his after he put down the wine glass that was formerly in his position, “it’s fine.”

“The truth is..” Stephen’s heart seemed to take the lead as it decided to react before the logical part of his brain could react. “The truth is being with you scares me. But not being with you…terrifies me.”

It wasn’t what he thought he’d say but Stephen is glad that he didn’t blurt out ‘in a frankly horrifying amount of futures you sacrifice yourself a lot and I really think that you need to stop that immediately.’ But it also seemed to catch Tony speechless for a moment, he should really get a reward for that. “I love you Anthony Edward Stark.”

“Pulling out the full names now are we Stephen Vincent Strange?” He teased as Tony leans in once again, this time Stephan finds himself tilting his head. If one of them moved an inch they would be kissing, “I love you and that timey wimey stuff that you love so much.”

“Okay fucking gross.” Stephen doesn’t let himself groan in disappointment as Tony’s annoyance shows up or rather the artificial intelligence that one hundred percent without a doubt gave Tony those annoying search results. “Get a room.”

“Handsome Jack, this is my room. They are technically all my rooms.” Tony resorted as he moved his attention to the AI, “and secondly were you just waiting for us to start making out before you popped in?”

“You were taking too long, I got impatient boss man.” Handsome Jack wasn’t at all effected by the tone that Tony used, “anyway Steve Rogers was looking for you, urgent Avengers business.”

In seconds Jack disappeared in little cubes of blue light, “always the bringer of disappointment, I’ll have to go attend to Cap. We’ll have to finish this conversation later.”


End file.
